Juneteenth Jamboree of New Plays Opens for Ninth Year

The Juneteenth Legacy Theatre’s annual Jamboree of New Plays opens this weekend with a slate of work. The festival features new plays about the African-American experience and several guest artists. This year, there’s a selection of scenes and monologues from the plays of August Wilson and new plays, including one called “Bringing Back Josephine.”

Ron Himes is the founder and producing director of St. Louis Black Rep, the nation’s largest, professional African-American theatre company. He also is acting in this year’s jamboree, including a performance in a new play called “Bringing Back Josephine” and in a selection of scenes from August Wilson’s plays.

“The excerpts are pretty in depth. The monologues are really, really strong in terms of how they support the scenes that lead into the monologues. And it’s been really great working with a really talented group of actors here,” he says.

Himes also says this is a tough time for all arts organizations to find funding and other support, particularly theaters that want to produce new work.

“It’s really a struggle to develop new work particularly,” he says. “So the fact that Juneteenth Legacy Theatre could have this kind of presence and this kind of support in Louisville is just great.”

The Juneteenth Jamboree runs through June 21 at Actors Theatre of Louisville.